Candy Cottingham

Brigham Young, who adopted the policies that now haunt the church. He described black people as cursed with dark skin as punishment for Cain’s murder of his brother. “Any man having one drop of the seed of Cane in him cannot hold the priesthood,” he declared in 1852. Young deemed black-white intermarriage so sinful that he suggested that a man could atone for it only by having “his head cut off” and spilling “his blood upon the ground.” Other Mormon leaders convinced themselves that the pre-existent spirits of black people had sinned in heaven by supporting Lucifer in his rebellion against God.

SSC

Oh ok you jumped threads so wasn't sure. I do think since 1852 we have come along some. Interracial marriage is sadly common now and the ancient way of thinking has long passed. We are a Christian nation at least for now but one brought up under the Muslim faith will collide with modern views. I know many Mormons and they are fine God fearing people. Don't know much about Allah and not really interested. I am not religious, guess I am an agnostic, I will believe in what can be shown and proven to me .

Candy Cottingham

Books tie pioneers' massacre to Mormon prophet / Church blames rogue official in 1857 incidentEmily Eakin, New York Times

On Sept. 11, 1857, a group of California-bound pioneers camping in southern Utah were slain by a Mormon militia and its Indian allies. The massacre lasted less than five minutes, but when it was over, 120 men, women and children had been clubbed, stabbed or shot at point-blank range. Their corpses, stripped of clothes and jewelry, were left to be picked apart by wolves and buzzards.

It was one of the worst American civilian atrocities of the 19th century. "The whole United States rang with its horrors," Mark Twain recalled years later. But despite two trials, one execution and numerous official investigations, the incident -- known as the Mountain Meadows massacre -- remains shrouded in mystery and rumor.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- the Mormon church -- has steadfastly denied responsibility, first blaming Indians and later a rogue church official for the crime. But now two authors who have studied the massacre say the prophet Brigham Young, the formidable church leader who built a Mormon kingdom in an oasis in the arid wilderness of the Rocky Mountains, masterminded the killings and then conspired to cover up his role.

"He did it," said Will Bagley, a history columnist for the Salt Lake Tribune whose book "Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows" (University of Oklahoma Press), has been a best seller in Utah since it appeared in late July. "The evidence is unambiguous."

Sally Denton, an investigative reporter based in Santa Fe, N.M., whose book "American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows," will be published by Knopf next summer, also holds Young responsible for the crime. "He was an absolute dictator," she said. "Nothing happened in the place that did not happen under his direct orders."

That conclusion is vigorously disputed by three Mormon church historians, who vow their own history of the massacre, to be published by Oxford University Press in 2004, will exonerate Young. "It's clear to us that this was not a headquarters-orchestrated project," said Glen Leonard, director of the Mormon Church's Museum of Church History and Art in Salt Lake City and one of that book's co-authors. "It was locally planned and carried out."

DOUBLE CROSSEDThe current round of debate may be the bluntest yet about the episode, which, in addition to investigative accounts, has inspired at least five novels in the last several years. The massacre stands out not only for its gruesomeness but also for the act of treachery that preceded it.

After enduring a four-day gun battle with their attackers, the pioneers accepted a truce that turned out to be a deadly ploy. Promised safe passage from the area in exchange for surrendering their weapons, the besieged group complied only to be systematically slaughtered. Seventeen children, all under 7 years old, were spared. Taken in by local families -- including those of men who had participated in the attack -- the children were eventually returned to relatives, some later providing devastating testimony about the massacre.

Federal investigators suspected Brigham Young of having had a hand in the crime but failed to produce sufficient evidence to convict him. In an 1858 report to the federal Indian commissioner, Young blamed local Indians and, by implication, the U.S. government, whose "fatal policy," he wrote, "treats the Indians like the wolves, or other ferocious beasts."

Then, in 1870, Young excommunicated John D. Lee, a Mormon official and militia leader in southern Utah, because of his participation in the massacre. Lee was tried twice for murder (he was convicted the second time) and executed in 1877. But rumors of a church-sponsored cover-up persisted. Many Mormons -- particularly in southern Utah -- left the church over the incident.

SSC

I did not ever receive anything from Gypsy but I now have her blocked on IYT and she as you know is banned here.The list of cuts has alot of merit to it, some things I don't agree with but for the most it needs to be done to get this country back on the road to becoming debt responsible. 16+ trillion is not acceptable and right now we are free falling . I see no new ideas from our president accept spend-spend and let China foot the bill.